"You've been doing awesome man. You keep this up and they won't even have a chance," Blaze said, giving him a fist bump.

The Homecoming court lined up and Jolie put her arm inside of Austin's and hung onto him for support. She was so nervous that her legs were shaking. The announcer called out each couple as they walked forward telling a little about them and then they received a bouquet of flowers and took a photo. Austin and Jolie were in the back and she closed her eyes and took a deep breath and exhaled.

"Are you nervous?" Austin asked.

Jolie laughed, "Yeah just a little bit." He leaned in close until his face was right in front of hers.

"It's ok. You've got this," he whispered, before giving her a soft kiss and making her feel butterflies in her stomach again. For some reason that kiss reminded her of the way she felt the night they had their very first kiss, which seemed like a lifetime ago now.

The announcer called for Blaze and Bailey and Jolie waited for her and Austin's names to be called holding her breath.

"And finally we have Jolie Watson escorted by Austin Fox who is also in the Homecoming Court. Jolie is a recent transfer here from New York. She is the current valedictorian of our Senior class. Austin Fox is the quarterback of our football team, captain of the basketball team, Senior class President and the current salutatorian of the Senior class. They both plan to attend Harvard University next Fall. Austin plans to become a doctor and Jolie plans to become a lawyer."

They stepped forward and were given a bouquet of flowers and posed for a few pictures for the newspaper before walking off the field arm in arm.

"See that wasn't so bad was it?" he asked her.

"No I guess it wasn't. I've gotta get used to being in front of crowds of people if I'm going to be a lawyer anyway," she laughed.

Austin gave her a soft kiss before saying, "I have to get back. I love you."

Jolie smiled and said, "I love you too Austin."

Then she watched him run back to the locker room. She looked over and noticed Mandy on the sidelines glaring at her with her arms crossed before she angrily turned around and stomped off.

The game was about to start again so the three of them made their way back up to the stands. The two older gentleman smiled at Jolie as she sat down and one of them asked her, "Miss was that you that I saw down there with Austin Fox?"

Jolie turned around and smiled at him and said, "Yes it was. He's my boyfriend."

The older man smiled. "That's great. Did I hear correctly that you're both going to Harvard? That's very impressive."

Jolie nodded and said, "Yes we are. We've both already gotten in. We're really excited."

The man's eyes grew wide and he said, "Wow. Well I just wanted to let you know what a special young man you have there. Not that you don't already know, but we all expect great things from him."

"Thank you sir. I expect great things from him too," Jolie said with a smile before turning around.

Then turned and said "Thanks to you Blaze. Him going to Harvard wouldn't have been possible if you hadn't stopped the fight and explained everything to Mr. Gentry so they'd drop the charges. Thank you."

Blaze smiled and said, "Hey don't mention it. No really. Don't mention it. I've got a bad reputation to keep and I don't want people to think I'm going soft."

Jolie laughed and shook her head.

Bailey smiled at him and said, "I see right through you and you're no bad guy Blaze McDaniels," before she kissed him again.

On the next play, after halftime the ball snapped and Austin held onto it trying to find an opening to throw but there was no one open. The other team's defense was covering up every player. Austin tucked the ball under his arm and tried to run for it himself instead and got just past gaining 10 yards before he was tackled hard from behind. When he was on the ground one of the other team's players kicked him in the back of the leg as he passed by but the refs didn't notice.

Austin just let it go because it actually didn't hurt much and he expected this kind of dirty play from this team.

As he walked past he heard their coach scream at one of the players, "What did I tell you? I said take him out of the game! Not some little baby kick in the leg. I want him out for good!"

Austin got in the huddle and told the guys what happened and what he heard that coach say. "We've got your back Austin. We won't let you down," Toby a huge defensive lineman said.

On the next snap Austin caught the ball and stepped back looking for Chaz. He caught a split second of him being open and timed it just perfect for the ball to fall right into his hands. Chaz was the fastest runner on the track team so he made a perfect receiver in football and once he got the ball it was almost impossible to catch him. He ran it all the way down the field and scored a touchdown, spiking the ball and doing a little dance. The crowd erupted and a couple players on the team ran to Chaz to celebrate.

Austin looked at the scoreboard and the time and knew they would be getting desperate which meant there was bound to be another dirty play coming up very soon, targeted at him. He was going to be on guard. Their kicker went up to kick a field goal and he made it in, scoring them an extra 2 points.

In the fourth quarter they had a substantial lead and Austin went up to the line. The ball snapped and he turned to look and see who was open but before he had a chance to react a huge tank of a player slammed into him at full force knocking him down, causing his whole body to slam into the ground hard. There was a whistle on the play and the ref threw a little yellow flag down.

"Roughing the passer!" he called out.

Austin laid there and blinked, trying to collect his thoughts. The wind had been completely knocked out of him. He tried to move his legs but it felt like they had cement bricks tied to them. He couldn't get up.

Jolie watched as a huge player from the other team rushed around and slammed into Austin with so much force that his head and body bounced off the ground. Everyone around her gasped or made a groaning sound, so she knew it had to be as bad as it looked to her. The crowd started screaming at the ref to call it right before he threw out the yellow flag.

"That's unfortunate," she heard the older gentleman say behind her.

"I don't know if he's walking away from that one. He got rocked really hard."

Jolie's heart started to pound faster and tears burned at her eyes. She was so worried about him and she held her breath to see if he was going to get up. The medic drove out onto the field in a golf cart and stood over him for a few minutes. The whole audience watched in stunned silence, There was a quiet that came over the crowd and everyone seemed to be holding their breath to see if Austin was going to be ok. She saw the medic shining a light in his eyes and then a couple guys ran out with a long plastic orange stretcher and they lifted Austin onto it before carrying him off the field.

"Oh my gosh. Is he gonna be ok?" Jolie asked.

"I don't know. That looked really bad," Blaze said.

They put Chaz in to take his spot as quarterback and the guys behind her groaned.

"This is going to be a disaster," one of them said. "Chaz is a great receiver but he's a terrible quarterback. Unfortunately he's the only option we've got. Hopefully Austin gave us enough of a lead that it won't matter."

Jolie was so worried about Austin she felt like crying. She wished she was allowed into the locker room so she could go run and see him. She was desperate to know if he was okay.

When the team lined up and the ball was snapped Chaz stepped back and wobbled on his foot. He went to throw the ball but it didn't go to the player he was trying to throw it to. Instead a player from the other team intercepted it and ran all the way down and scored a touchdown on us.

"Come on!!" the guys behind Jolie shouted. "Why'd we have to put this knucklehead in? We need to get Austin back in there," he complained.

It was now the other team's turn and they made a few good plays but our defensive players kept them at bay most of the time. They gained some yards but didn't score another touchdown at least on their turn. When it was time for our team to have possession again Jolie heard everyone screaming wildly and she looked around to figure out what they were cheering for.